The most shameless alchemist in history

"Do you want me to move the stones?" Dure frowned.

“Actually, these stone slabs are made of very special materials that can change shape and size, so you don’t need to worry about them being inconvenient to carry,” Kelly explained from the side.

"Oh? You can do that?" Du Lei was somewhat surprised by this.

“Yes, I entrust this stone slab to you, Mr. Dure. I believe you have a way to save our country and this land,” Jelf said again.

“Even though you say that…” Du Lei still hesitated.

"Durey, when did you become so fussy? Is this still the Durey I know?" Lance urged.

"Alright, I understand. I'll keep this stone slab for now." After a moment's thought, Du Lei could only agree.

"That's wonderful!" Jelf cheered with joy when he saw Dure agree.

“So now you have two stone tablets, Dure. To prevent the people of Purgatory from getting them, we should get our hands on the other five stone tablets,” Kelly said.

"The other five stone tablets are... the Land of Wind, the Land of Snow, the Land of Mountains, the Land of Thunder, and the Land of Flame, right?"

“Yes, the Snow Country and the Mountain Country currently have a very good relationship with you, Du Lei. It shouldn’t be difficult for you to get the stone tablet. The difficult ones are the Wind Country, the Thunder Country, and the Flame Country,” Kelly nodded and said.

"So what's next..." Du Lei pondered for a moment, considering his next move.

Just then, someone rushed in from outside.

The person who entered was one of Jelf's guards, and he whispered something to Jelf.

"What did you say?" Jelf looked very surprised.

The guards quickly withdrew.

"What happened?" Lance asked curiously.

"The Land of Lightning and the Land of Flame are at war, and these two countries have now declared war!" Zeref said, frowning.

"Declare war? At this time?"

()

906 Marco Polo

After leaving Storm City, Dure took a train to Flame City, a major southern town in the Land of Flames.

According to the train timetable, the journey from Storm City to Blaze City takes eighteen hours.

Originally, Jelf offered to arrange a special train for Dure, or even provide a military train to escort him.

But Dure refused Jelf's offer and boarded the civilian train line alone.

Lance and Kelly did not accompany him because they had other things to do.

At other times, the train would be packed with people, but the train that Dure was on was very empty.

This wasn't because Zeref was deliberately giving him special privileges, but because the Land of Flame and the Land of Lightning were currently at war.

This led to a large number of merchants and ordinary people fleeing the country, as they did not want to be affected by the war.

Those who originally intended to do business in the Land of Flame or the Land of Lightning now need to seriously reconsider their plans.

After all, apart from a very few specific businesses, most businesses are impossible to operate in a war-torn environment.

There were only two people in Du Lei's carriage; besides him, there was only one other person.

He was a middle-aged man, probably in his forties, tall and thin, wearing a cowboy hat.

His outfit also had a cowboy feel to it, and he even carried a revolver on his waist.

This is a brand new gadget; originally, his seat and Du Lei's seat were a distance apart.

But he quickly changed his seat to the one opposite Dure. Anyway, there was no one else around, and no one would care if he changed seats freely.

He changed seats because the journey was too boring and he wanted to find someone to talk to, and Dure was the only person he could find.

Although Dure was engrossed in his book and didn't pay much attention to him, he was clearly a chatterbox.

He talked to himself the whole way.

However, from his fragmented words, Du Lei learned that his name was Marco Polo, and that he was a native of the Flame Country. However, he was passionate about adventure and travel, and many years ago he left his homeland of the Flame Country to travel to various parts of the continent, where he experienced many local customs and even wrote many travelogues.

Now that he has learned of the war in his hometown, he has taken a route from Stormy City back to his hometown, intending to do his part for his hometown.

“Redu, do you know what war is? War is the brutal plundering of other people’s property. It is immoral, barbaric, and unfair. Its existence has caused our human civilization to regress!” Marco Polo denounced it vehemently.

"War is inevitable. As long as humanity exists, there will be contradictions and disagreements. These contradictions and disagreements will continue to escalate from individuals to groups. Different groups will clash due to various reasons such as region, race, belief, and customs. From a certain perspective, war does destroy everything and has a strong destructive power. However, we must objectively acknowledge that if there were no war and everyone lived in peace, the world would lose its vitality for progress. People would be content with the status quo and live a comfortable life, which would be the real regression of the times."

After finishing the book, Du Lei closed it and said softly.

“Huh, Redu, your point of view… is quite novel,” Marco Polo said, pausing for a moment.

“It’s like two people getting along. If they get along well, they’ll go hunting together and fight wild animals with sticks. But if they don’t get along, they’ll fight and try to kill each other. They’ll use sticks, iron tools, gunpowder guns… It’s this kind of conflict that has led to an explosion of technology,” Dure continued.

"Although I don't agree with your point of view, Redu, you're really amazing. You have such unique insights."

Marco Polo originally thought the young man was a taciturn fellow, but he could talk at length and show off his knowledge.

But after hearing what Du Lei said, he realized that this kid actually had a lot to offer!

“This isn’t exactly a unique insight. Are we… already beyond the Wind Whisper Mountains?” Du Lei looked out the car window at the receding scenery.

"That's right, we've crossed the Wind Whisper Mountains. The Wind Whisper Mountains are the border between the Flame Kingdom and the Rain Kingdom. From now on, we've officially set foot on the territory of the Flame Kingdom. Speaking of which, it's been twenty-two years since I've returned to my hometown. I really miss it!"

Marco Polo looked out the car window, took off his cowboy hat, and took a deep breath of the cold air drifting in from outside.

"This long-lost smell... it really is that familiar sulfur smell, it's really pungent." Marco Polo closed the window helplessly.

Since crossing the Wind Whisper Mountains, the land has gradually turned red, and it is extremely arid everywhere.

This is the complete opposite of the Land of Rain, which is known for its constant heavy rains.

"The Land of Flames is a country built on a vast expanse of volcanoes. It is said that there are as many as 642 volcanoes within the Land of Flames," Dure said softly.

"No, it's 647 seats," Marco Polo corrected.

"What?" Du Lei was somewhat surprised, because the number 642 was the official figure and should be correct.

“I know you saw the number 642 in a geography magazine. Actually, that number isn’t wrong, but five more volcanoes were discovered later. New things are discovered every year, and in a few years, that number will continue to increase,” Marco Polo said with a smile.

"By the way, I'm one of the editors-in-chief of a geography magazine," Marco Polo said with a hint of pride.

"I see. No wonder you are so knowledgeable about geography." Marco Polo had talked about local customs and traditions when he was talking to himself before. Now it seems that he wasn't just making things up.

"Of course, my hometown is very barren due to frequent volcanoes, and it doesn't produce any food at all. But thankfully, there is one industry that is extremely developed."

“It’s the magic stone industry, right?” Dure added.

"That's right, that's right, young man, you really are knowledgeable. It is magic stone. There are a lot of magic stones near the crater. In my hometown, everyone has mastered the skills of mining magic stones. When I was a child, I often went to collect magic stones with the children in the village."

Marco Polo recalled his childhood, which made him somewhat melancholy.

"Magic stones have brought prosperity to the Flame Kingdom. Speaking of which, the Flame Kingdom is the largest producer of magic stones, while the Thunder Kingdom is the largest importer of magic stones, right?" Du Lei said softly.

“Yes, my hometown produces magic stones, while the Land of Thunder, although they don’t have such abundant resources as magic stones in their territory, they have another skill: making various magical items. And making magical items requires magic stones to be inlaid. Historically, our Land of Flame and the Land of Thunder have always had a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship.” Marco Polo nodded in affirmation.

"But such a cooperative relationship suddenly turned into enmity and war broke out, didn't it?"

“Yes…it’s really unexpected. Our Flame Kingdom and Thunder Kingdom used to have a very good relationship, and the two countries have intermarried many times in history. But suddenly they declared war. It’s really baffling.” Marco Polo was also confused.

“There must be many reasons for the outbreak of war, hmm?” Dure had received two intelligence reports before boarding the train.

One copy was given to him by Jelf, and the other was obtained through his own intelligence channels.

Through these two intelligence reports, he also figured out what triggered the war between the two countries.

However, this information has not yet been disclosed. He and Marco Polo were just casual acquaintances, and there was no need for him to tell him these things.

Just then, the train suddenly slowed down and came to a stop.

"What's going on? Have we arrived at the station? No, wait, isn't there still two hours until the next station?" Marco Polo checked the time and said, somewhat puzzled.

“If it’s not a malfunction that caused the car to stop, then some kind of emergency must have occurred.” Du Lei has a lot of experience with similar situations.

After all, he had encountered similar incidents several times before.

"An unexpected event? What unexpected event?" Marco Polo was a little puzzled. "I'll go take a look."

He opened the window, intending to ask what was going on in the carriage ahead.

But at that moment, a burst of gunfire suddenly rang out from outside!

"boom!"

The gunshot was very muffled, accompanied by the sound of horses' hooves, which stunned Marco Polo.

“These people are…” Marco Polo squinted as he looked into the distance.

Soon he saw people riding horses rushing down the hillsides on both sides of the railway tracks.

They were all holding homemade gunpowder guns, and there were quite a few of them, numbering forty or fifty.

"Bandits?" Du Lei glanced at it and roughly understood what was going on.

Located at the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Flame, this area is a typical no-man's-land, plagued by lawlessness and rampant banditry.

He had heard before that bandits were rampant on the borders of the Flame Kingdom, and that groups of bandits would often rob passing merchants, causing widespread panic. Now that the Flame Kingdom and the Thunder Kingdom had broken out into war, the army had been deployed to the eastern front, leaving only a small force of security troops to defend the south.

It's completely impossible to expect these security forces to suppress the bandits.

They never expected to run into these bandits, and these bandits actually came to rob the train!

"Bandits? No way, are bandits these days so arrogant that they even dare to rob trains?" Marco Polo found it unbelievable.

He had been away from his hometown for many years, and in his memory, his hometown was originally a beautiful place.

But I never expected that the first thing I would see upon returning to my hometown would be being robbed by bandits.

"They probably set up roadblocks to stop the train and then took the opportunity to rob it. After all, robbing a town is not only more difficult, but towns will also organize defenses and hide valuables. Trains are different. Trains are enclosed, and there is no one to support them in the vast wilderness. As long as they stop the train, they can do whatever they want and loot the valuables on the train," Du Lei said calmly.

"Young man, you seem quite professional about these things." Marco Polo looked at him in surprise.

"..."

"Anyway, we can only get off the bus now." Du Lei looked out the window.

At this moment, the bandits stopped beside the railway tracks and dismounted.

"Everyone get down here and behave yourselves!" some bandits were already shouting.